My friend tends to not like any of my characters and often tries to kill them off early on so I need something overpowered that can survive these encounters. Preferably something that can end the fights quickly by dealing a lot of damage. I recently rolled my characters abilities (14 12 11 9 9 8) and now need to figure out where to do from here. Not the best of stats I know but it's what I rolled. I'm allowed to move them around where ever I like so hopefully that helps. I also have all the Ponyfinder books, start at level three (ash included), and as far as I know everything but firearms is allowed.

Just joined today so if I'm breaking any rules by posting here and asking this then I apologize. I'm just tired of playing sub-optimal characters in a world filled with dragons and need help.

First things first: I'd recommend talking to your GM, about a couple different things.

1. It sounds like you're playing a high-risk, combat-heavy game when that isn't really your playstyle. I'd ask him if, y'know, he could tone it down a bit--maybe go for an easier challenge, or something that focuses on skills/roleplay more than combat. If you're not having fun, that's a big problem--or, at least, it would be in my group.

2. Ask your GM to throw you a bone regarding your stats. Those rolls aren't awful, but they are on the low end; many GMs I know would allow you to reroll one or more of those to help you beef up your character a bit.

3. Ask about how he's calculating difficulty in general. If he really is throwing dragons at a level-three party, something's gone horribly wrong (unless your party's huge--but even so...). If you're doing D&D 5e, tell him random internet strangers told him to check out the encounter creation rules in the Dungeon Master's Guide; in my case, when I figured out that section was less "here's how to build a fun encounter" and more "here's the underlying math that makes 5e function," it changed my life.

Now, on to your actual question:

I play 5e pretty much exclusively, and haven't touched pathfinder, so this advice may not be accurate. But it's a place to start, at least...

I, personally, am not an expert in character-building, but, in my experience, there aren't a ton of "broken" combinations. In general, you can pick suvivability (i.e., a "tank" build) or damage dealing (a "DPS/Striker" build), but not both.

If you want to survive: Try a Barbarian, Fighter, or Paladin. Barbarian Rages make you take half-damage from nonmagical sources, which is huge; Fighters can get extra just-because AC, and can heal themselves with Second Wind; Paladins share some of the just-because abilities of fighters, and may be able to heal themselves outright (depending on GM interpretation, Lay On Hands may be applied to yourself as well).

If you want to deal damage, go Assassin Rogue, full stop. Assassins get stupid bonuses to sneak attack, and can do up to 50+ damage on a good hit. Higher-level wizards can also do a ton of damage too, but Assassins are the way to go, IMO.

Some individual character options that might be fun:- Gem Ponies can reroll most 1s, preventing you from getting crit-failures.- Sea Horses have a feat that allows you to cast Hero's Feast on the party for relatively cheap; Hero's Feast is a major buff that, while it won't apply to you personally, could save your party. (Hm... are Gem Pony/Sea Horses a thing...?)- Clerics of the Tempest domain have an ability that allows them to do damage to anyone that hits them. Won't necessarily keep you alive, but may cause enemies to look elsewhere.- Clerics of the War domain get some neat abilities that make them pretty kick*ss melee fighters, even at low levels. - Clerics of the Light domain have an emergency panic-button "Don't hurt me!" ability. (Can you tell which class I'm playing right now?)

Finally: if you want a more active community with more specific advice, you may want to check out Reddit. I've found reddit.com/r/rpg, reddit.com/r/dnd, and reddit.com/r/pathfinder to be helpful. Just... don't mention that you play Ponyfinder. They don't take kindly to that sort of thing over there... (though reddit.com/r/mylittlepony is great).